Five ways to have rockin’ sub days

We all love getting a day off now and then, but we all hate making sub plans. Most of the time, I would suffer through whatever illness was ailing me so that I wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of creating plans! Here are a few things that helped to make my sub planning easier and sub days to go more smoothly:

Create a detailed, organized sub plan binder. I love my sub binder! It took me quite awhile to create, but it helped sub days to go smoothly. In my binder, I have tabs for (1) Lesson plans, (2) Class rosters, (3) Seating charts, (4) Class policies, (5) Discipline, and (5) Emergency info. I leave my emergency plans in the (1) tab, and I temporarily replace them with specific plans when I know that I am out on a planned absence. (2) and (3) are updated as needed (whenever a new student is added/removed or seats change), and (5) and (6) are set up at the beginning of the year and updated if necessary. Along with the class rosters, I include photos of each of my students so that a teacher can identify a student even if s/he was unable to catch the student’s name. I also took pictures of anything that I referenced (ex: “drawing supplies are behind the sliding whiteboards on the left-hand side”, “hall and nurse passes are at the front of the top right desk drawer”) and labeled them in order to make things around the room easier to find.

Have ready-to-go “fast finisher” activities available and easy to access. For me, this meant a bin of laminated folders with worksheets on them that students can grab and complete at their own pace. The bin was always out on one of my tables, and students knew about it.

Create a reward system. I left “Superstar” tickets that the substitute could give out to any student that behaved in an admirable way. The tickets were placed in that class’s prize drawing bag that was used to select Singing Ninjas and for bi-weekly prize drawings (5 winners/class–most of the prizes were candy).

Leave plans that require nothing (or little) more than simply monitoring the students. Don’t leave plans that require the substitute to speak the target language, even if you have a pre-arranged, TL speaking sub (you never know when s/he might cancel and be replaced by a non-TL speaker). Don’t leave plans that require them to teach lessons. Don’t leave plans that require them to use technology, no matter how simple it seems. Don’t leave plans that require them to administer assessments, because they all too often neglect to maintain the integrity of the testing environment and administration. Don’t leave plans that allow students the opportunity to get rowdy (cooperative learning activities, games, etc.). Keep it simple! Here are three kinds of sub plans that have worked for me: (1) Storyboard based plans where students read a story, answer comprehension questions, re-write the story, and then illustrate a storyboard if they have time. See examples here, here, and here. (2) Reading-based plans where students read a story, answer comprehension questions, examine info graphs, write responses, etc. See an example here and my emergency plans here (the reading isn’t included, but you can at least see the plans). (3) Mad Libs based plans, where students fill out a Mad Libs reading and then share their creation with classmates in an extremely structured manner. See an example here. To see more sub plan ideas, visit my sub plan category archives for ideas of activities that I’ve posted that could work as sub plans.

Leave more than enough work for the class period, and grade it based on completion (if your sub will have planning time, leave instructions for him/her to do this for you–an A if it’s finished, a B if it’s mostly done, a C if they got some work done, etc. I put this grade in the Work Habits (formerly ‘citizenship’) category.

By implementing those five strategies, I minimized the terror of sub days. What strategies do you use to help sub days go smoothly? What kinds of plans do you leave?

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6 thoughts on “Five ways to have rockin’ sub days”

I finally put together a sub binder and did the same as you: lesson plans, seating charts, attendance lists, etc. Since I have switched to a tprs classroom, I’ve been using projects I used to do with the students as sub plans. I had the students write and illustrate an All About Me poster which they presented to the class. They did a House project (draw and label a dream house and furniture). Next time I’m gone, I’m going to have them make a Menu. When I was really sick and didn’t know I was going to be out, I had them create Dictionaries. I hate missing school!

This is very apropos for me right now. I used to never be out, but now that I have a baby I find myself taking unexpected sick days more often. The first time that happened this year was disastrous. I had forgotten to update my class rosters for the new semester, and none of my instructions were relayed to the sub! Whtat a waste. Now my sub folder is not quite as organized as yours, but I have three emergency activities on hand that work for almost any level. First is a crossword puzzle worksheet in which students create a puzzle using words from their class word wall. Second is an Essential Sentences worksheet (sort of like your storyboard) in which students copy 6 most important sentences, illustrate them, and then explain their drawings in English. Third, for more advanced classes, is a writing assignment in which they choose three terms from their class word wall and write a story around them. Each of these assignments was used the last time I got called out early by daycare, and they all worked really well!